zdl_cryptofandomcom-20200214-history
REN (REN)
Basics * FKA Republic Protocol, changed its name on 18-1-2019 * From CMC: "Ren is an open protocol meant to enable the permissionless and private transfer of value between any blockchain. Ren's core product, RenVM, is focused on bringing interoperability to decentralized finance (DeFi)." * RenVM is a middleware, it is infrastructure for DeFi. RenVM enables decentralized liquidity cross chain. * Claims to be "100x faster than atomic swaps" * Uses Zero-knowledge tech for privacy. * Ren the protocol is it's own network of nodes. It uses Ethereum for the Ren token, and contract for the bonds. And it uses Ethereum for Ethereum-interoperability. But the protocol is run on darknodes, not Ethereum. It has its own consensus. * The token is only a bond. 100,000 REN needed for a Darknode. To protect the network. Cant use ETH because you want the bond to reflect how much the network is used. * It will have its own DEX in the future, SwapperD. But thats not the point. The point is that other dex’s can integrate Ren in their systems and start doing cross chain swaps on dex’s. This will create more liquidity due to connecting multiple DEX's. * In the words of one community member in their telegram channel: " If we're talking about liquidity, we generally mean trading. So RenVM isn't an exchange, it's a tool that can take custody of assets on different chains. So that's useful for exchanges that want to offer users the ability to trade BTC to ETH for example. So dexes integrate RenVM, there is your liquidity. If you're talking about lending BTC on Compound, you immediately unlock that using RenVM, no "liquidity" needed." Products * From this post by Token Tuesdays (29-1-2020): "REN is still in the early phases of development, recently launching ChaosNet in late 2019 - a pre-production, unaudited version of the RenVM used to battle-test the new virtual machine. With that, the protocol has seen nearly 60 registered darknodes (min. 10,000 REN bond) with only a few dollars in value of exogenous asset rewards." RenEX * Released its first mainnet on 1-10-2018, alongside RenEx as "the first truly decentralized dark pool to be built on the protocol". '' RenVM * However, the core product, RenVM is still (12-2019) in Testnet, which was launched in 8-2019. * The RenVM release plan: 1. Chaosnet (released in 11-2019) 2. Mainnet SubZero 3. Mainnet Zero 4. Mainnet One * "''RenVM brings interoperability to decentralized finance (DeFi). RenVM itself, is a virtual machine that replicates itself over a decentralized network of thousands ''(on 8-2019 there were around 200) of physical machines known as Darknodes. What makes RenVM unique is that it does everything in secret using zero-knowledge proofs and our newly developed sMPC protocol. The state, inputs and outputs of all programs in RenVM are kept hidden from everyone, including the Darknodes that power it. This allows RenVM to securely manage private keys on different blockchains, making it possible to shift tokens between these blockchains in a trustless and decentralized way. If you would like to learn more, check out our documentation.'' Although RenVM can be used to power all kinds of secret applications, its focus is on interoperability between blockchains. RenVM allows smart contracts on various blockchains (starting with Ethereum) to accept and spend tokens on other blockchains (starting with Bitcoin and ZCash). This empowers DEXs to begin offering new pairings that were not previously possible without centralized parties. With all of this said, RenVM is not a product or an application in and of itself but is a network (and an accompanying SDK) that allows developers to bring multi-chain functionality to their applications." * Has a transaction management system that allows it to process multiple Bitcoin/ZCash (and other) transactions as one transaction. "This makes RenVM cheaper, faster, and better for everyone." * Will be BFT and RenVM uses a modified version of the Tendermint consensus algorithm designed specifically for sharding and sMPC. It's called "Hyperdrive" ChaosDEX * From their 2019 end year blog: "Over the last month, ChaosDEX has served as a very useful conduit for those curious about RenVM, how it all works, and for discovering bugs. RenVM has successfully completed more than 240 cross-chain transactions and more than $6,900 of traded volume. Check out stats here." Roundabout * From their own end year blog 2019: "The first third-party dapp built on RenVM Chaosnet. Roundabout is an experimental, permissionless, non-custodial way to transfer Bitcoin in and out of Ethereum. Simply said you can mint real BTC on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20. There is already a zBTC Uniswap pool, so one can try it out and trade zBTC against any other assets on Uniswap." SwapperD * Decentralized Exchange and Application Integrations * "SwapperD will be a wallet for interacting with RenVM and making zkTransactions secure, simple, and easy to use. It will provide privacy preserving cross-chain swaps with a seamless user experience. SwapperD facilitates cross-chain interoperability to enhance the capability of all products in the Ren ecosystem, as well as providing a universal, user-friendly method for the entire industry to perform trustless swaps between blockchains. Initially, SwapperD will perform cross-chain swaps using traditional hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs). Any blockchain that supports HTLCs, such as BTC, LTC, ETH, ZEC, EOS, and countless others, will be able to be supported by SwapperD while it uses HTLCs for cross-chain swapping." How it practically works * "You are Andy (but nobody knows you are due to zk-p), you want to buy BTC on a DEX, you have ETH. You go to Uniswap, you say you want to buy BTC, you put in the receive BTC address you want the BTC to appear in, and you just sign the transaction sending your ETH away, and bam you got BTC now in your own BTC address. What happened here is that there is a Uniswap pool now thanks to RenVM that has ETH and Ren-BTC (an ERC-20 token) in it, when you send ETH it triggers a burn of the Ren-BTC and it sends real BTC to you with RenVM's own keys." Consensus What will now be following is the detailed explanation from their own website: * "Algorithm The Tendermint consensus algorithm proceeds in block heights, where each block height commits exactly one block, and involves multiple rounds of voting. An overview of the Tendermint consensus algorithm can be found in their documentation. * Proposals Upon entering the current round, the Darknode leader will propose a block of transactions that it hopes to see committed for the current height. If the Darknode leader does not propose a valid block in time, the Tendermint consensus algorithm will guarantee that the round will be incremented and a new Darknode leader will be elected. '' ''Darknode leaders are required to inject pseudo-transactions into a block before proposing it to other Darknodes. Pseudo-transactions are continuously built by the Darknodes, and are required by RZL to execute most blocks. The transactions in a block will determine the number, and type, of pseudo-transactions that must be injected. '' * 'Voting' ''Upon seeing a proposal for the current round, or timing out, Darknodes will broadcast a vote for the block, or a vote for no block. See the Tendermint consensus algorithm for more information. Darknodes must verify that they have seen all pseudo-transactions in the proposed block, the pseudo-transactions are valid, and the pseudo-transactions are accompanied by the required zero-knowledge proofs of correctness. If so, block validation proceeds as usual. If not, the block is considered invalid. * Committing Upon seeing a polka for the current round, or timing out, Darknodes will broadcast a commitment for the polka block, or a commitment for no block. * Execution Upon seeing 2/3rd+ commitments for a polka block, nodes participating in a Tendermint consensus algorithm will usually execute all of the transactions in the block without further interaction with other nodes. However, in RenVM, transactions in a block must be executed using RZL secure multiparty computation. This ensures that inputs, outputs, and state transitions can be kept secret, but it also requires further interaction between nodes. Committed blocks will be placed into a FIFO execution queue. Darknodes will progress through the execution queue and invoke an RZL secure multiparty computation for each transaction. After all transactions in the block have been executed, the block must be fused. Fusing a block involves taking all intermediate values produces during the RZL secure multiparty computations, injecting them into the footer of the block, re-signing the entire block, and broadcasting the signature. Fusing a block can be done locally, since all intermediate values are the same for all Darknodes. After seeing 2/3rd+ signatures for the same block, with the same footer, the block is said to be fused and the next block in the execution queue can be executed. * Pseudo Transactions Pseudo-transactions are required by Darknodes in order to execute the transactions in a block. The pseudo-transactions needed to execute a transaction are not correlated with the transaction, and so Darknodes are able to fill a pseudo-transaction pool in parallel with the core consensus algorithm. This reduces the impact on consensus performance. By observing the transactions in a block, a Darknode can determine the number of pseudo-transactions required, and the type of pseudo-transactions, that are required to execute the block. This determination is non-interactive and does not require extra communication between Darknodes. It follows that the addition of pseudo-transactions does not affect the core consensus algorithm." On their Fee Model * The token Ren is only used by the darknodes as a bond. Fees will be natively or dai. * Users must pay a minimum fee of 0.1% of the moved tokens and users can optionally increase the fee in increments of 0.01% to encourage Darknodes to prioritise their transaction. * "Given the breadth of use cases RenVM can facilitate, there are situations where a dynamic fee as outlined above, is not feasible, for example: ** Transferring of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) ** Performing general-purpose computations in secret The exact fee is dependent on the amount of data required, the amount of work required, and how much the user wants to be prioritised but the formula for determining this is 0.000005 DAI / second / Darknode and 0.0000002 DAI byte / Darknode. This is an approximation based on the current costs of operating a Darknode with the recommended hardware specifications. However, this is subject to changes as the general purpose scripting capabilities of RenVM are developed. To know why we chose Dai, please read our companion blog which can be found here." How fees are distributed: * Fees are paid immediately to the Darknode payment contract (there is no delay between payment and work done by the Darknodes). * Fees will be distributed to Darknodes at the end of each cycle (approximately once per month) and will be split evenly amongst all Darknodes that were actively participating during that month. * A Darknode will not receive fees for cycles in which they are inactive, become active mid-cycle, or go offline mid-cycle. Darknodes must maintain uptime for the entire cycle to receive the rewards distribution. Value proposition * The reasoning is that because all of this is great, many dex’s will use it, therefor users will get in contact with Ren products. Therefor fee’s will be lucrative. People will want darknodes to get in on the fees. People will then buy Ren to bond in the darknodes. This will drive up the price. * For a simple explanation of REN's tokenomics, check this article (11-2-2020). Advantages * Following is taken from Token Tuesdays: "As it compares to other stake-based systems, REN is unique in the sense that rewards are paid in the form of transferred tokens and DAI. Taking this a step further, this means that darknode operators are paid in the form of something like BTC, ETH or XTZ, rather than being compensated in the form of REN tokens. As a result, REN’s staking system does not suffer from the inherent sell pressure resulting from validators looking to capitalize on their rewards. Instead, sell pressure from rewards is put on whichever blockchain garners the most traction, likely Bitcoin. Seeing as Bitcoin has much stronger buy-side pressure than that of REN, it’s safe to assume that validators will be able to capitalize on reward redemptions with little to no slippage. Secondly, the high staking requirement (100,000 REN) necessary to host a darknode ensures that security of the network will be governed by high profile parties. This drastically reduces the chance for malicious actors to game the system as the initial bond requires a significant amount of capital. Furthermore, this staking requirement effectively removes REN from the circulating supply while the darknode is operational. As such, in the event that darknode’s become profitable in the medium term, it can be expected that scarcity will have an advantageous effect on the token price at large." Drawbacks * Following is taken from Token Tuesdays: "The existing market for cross-chain private transactions of digital assets is still extremely nascent. As it stands today, the average individual does not recognize why using something like REN is beneficial in the short or long term. While there may be a number of DeFi applications interested in integrating the RenVM, the system is heavily reliant on the support of it’s partners for long term success. Secondly, privacy and interoperability are by no means novel ideas anymore. The concept of combining the two is certainly novel, but Ren must compete with a large number of projects looking to specialize in either private or interoperable transactions. While the advantages of having a high staking requirement were listed above, it’s also worth noting that this entry-level poses a significant barrier to entry for dedicated community members who do not have the capital necessary to become a Darknode operator. As such, we hope that the project will consider some sort of delegation system for token holders of smaller volumes to enjoy Darknode rewards via smaller bonding amounts." Audits * From their AMA of 1-2020: "The audit is going well. The smart contracts have been finished, and all issues were addressed quickly. The Hyperdrive audit is currently underway, and there have been no critical issues reported so far. The next steps are to scope the audit for the RZL sMPC paper and its accompanying implementation (the z0 engine). There are no timeline estimates that we are comfortable giving to the public at this stage, as audits times can vary a lot depending on what is found, and an audit of an sMPC implementation is not common (estimates quickly propagate through the community and become incorrectly interpreted as hard commitments)." How Decentralized will Ren be? * From their AMA of 1-2020, in which someone asked the question: "I understand the early stages of the network will have the core nodes of the Ren Team and trusted partners responsible for maintaining the integrity of the network - do you intend to remain in this phase until sufficient transaction volume is on the network that attracts sufficient 3rd party operators? Are there plans to incentive that initial volume? We intend to remain in the Mainnet SubZero phase until there is sufficient volume (stable over a reasonable period of time) to attract members of the public to run Darknodes and earn rewards by doing so. During this period, Ren and other projects will operate Darknodes to keep the networking running (and to keep it semi-decentralized amongst Ren and these third-parties). It is important for the security of the network that volume grows naturally, otherwise, it risks dropping after the incentivization ends. However, to begin with, we will support volume by providing liquidity to DEXs, and keeping minting fees low." Team, investors, partnerships, etc. * Taiyang Zhang; CEO * Loong Wang; CTO * The team plans to fund itself long term by having Darknodes Advisors (as of 8-2019) * Dorjee Sun; CEO, Perlin Network * Loi Luu; CEO, KyberNetwork * John Ng Pangilinan; Partner, Signum Capital * Anup Malani; Economics, University of Chicago Partnerships * Has, since 2019, what is called a Ren Alliance. "The Ren Alliance is a group of initial launch partners/projects committed to using RenVM." * Partners with BitGo and Kyber to begin the WBTC initiative; RenEx becomes a Merchant for WBTC (31-1-2019) * Partners with Aztec Protocol to incorporate their privacy focused tech into the Ren ecosystem. (5-3-2019) * Has partnerships with Digi Global * Partners with Wyre (As of 28-10-2019 on the website of Wyre) Category:Coins/Tokens